Editors Code of Practice: IPSO

Question 1

Clause One

Answer 1

Accuracy

Question 2

Clause Two

Answer 2

Privacy

Question 3

Clause Three

Answer 3

Harrassment

Question 4

Clause Four

Answer 4

Intrusion into grief or shock

Question 5

Clause Five

Answer 5

Reporting suicide

Question 6

Clause Six

Answer 6

Children

Question 7

Clause Seven

Answer 7

Children in sex cases

Question 8

Clause Eight

Answer 8

Hospitals

Question 9

Clause Nine

Answer 9

Reporting of crime

Question 10

Clause Ten

Answer 10

Clandestine devices and subterfuge

Question 11

Clause Eleven

Answer 11

Victims of sexual assault

Question 12

Clause Twelve

Answer 12

Discrimination

Question 13

Clause Thirteen

Answer 13

Financial Journalism

Question 14

Clause Fourteen

Answer 14

Confidential sources

Question 15

Clause Fifteen

Answer 15

Witness payments in criminal trials

Question 16

Clause Sixteen

Answer 16

Payment to criminals

Question 17

Clause one: Accuracy

Answer 17

• Press must not publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.
• Any significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence and apology published - if appropriate. In cases involving IPSO, due prominence should be required by the regulator.

Question 18

Clause two: Privacy

Answer 18

• Everyone is entitled to respect his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications.
• Editors are expected to justify intrusions into any individual’s private life without consent.
• It is unacceptable to photograph individuals, without their consent in public or private places where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Question 19

Clause three: Harassment

Answer 19

• Journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.
• Journalists must not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing individuals once asked to desist; nor remain on property when asked to leave and must not follow them.
• If requested, they must identify themselves and whom they represent.
• Editors must ensure these principles are observed by those working for them and take care not to use non-compliant material from other sources.

Question 20

Clause four: Intrusion into grief or shock

Answer 20

• In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion and publication handled sensitively.
• These provisions should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings.

Question 21

Clause five: Reporting suicide

Answer 21

• When reporting suicide, to prevent simulative acts care should be taken to avoid excessive detail of the method used, while taking into account the media’s right to report legal proceedings.

Question 22

Clause six: Children

Answer 22

• All pupils should be free to complete their time at school without unnecessary intrusion.
• They must not be approached or photographed at school without permission of the school authorities
• Children under 16 must not be interviewed or photographed on issues involving their own or another child’s welfare unless a custodial parent or adult carer consents.

Question 23

Clause Seven: Children in sex cases

Answer 23

• The press must not, even if legally free to do so, identify children under 16 who are victims or witnesses in cases involving sex offences.
• The child must not be identified
• The adult may be identified
• The word “incest” must not be used where a child might be identified.
• Care must be taken that nothing in the report suggests the relationship between the accused and the child.

Question 24

Clause eight: Hospitals

Answer 24

• Journalists must identify themselves and obtain permission from a responsible executive before entering non-public areas of hospitals or similar institutions to pursue enquiries.
• The restrictions on intruding into privacy are particularly relevant to enquiries about individuals in hospitals or similar institutions

Question 25

Clause nine: Reporting of Crime

Answer 25

• Relatives or friends of persons convicted or accused of crime should not generally be identified without their consent, unless they are genuinely relevant to the story.
• This should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings
• Editors should generally avoid naming children under the age of 18 after arrest for a criminal offence but before they appear in a youth court unless they can show that the individual’s name is already in the public domain

Question 26

Clause ten: Clandestine devices and subterfuge

Answer 26

• The press must not seek to obtain or publish information acquired by using hidden cameras or clandestine listening devices; or by intercepting private or mobile telephone calls, messages or emails.
• Engaging in misrepresentation or subterfuge, including by agents or intermediaries, can generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means

Question 27

Clause eleven: Victims of sexual assault

Answer 27

• The press must not identify or publish material likely to lead to the identification of a victim of sexual assault unless there is adequate justification and they are legally free to do so.
• Journalists are entitled to make enquiries but must take care and exercise discretion to avoid the unjustified disclosure of the identity of a victim of sexual assault.

Question 28

Clause twelve: Discrimination

Answer 28

• The press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual’s race, colour, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or any physical or mental disability unless genuinely relevant to the story.
• Details of an individual’s race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or disability must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story.

Question 29

Clause thirteen: Financial journalism

Answer 29

• Even where the law does not prohibit it, journalists must not use for their own profit financial information they receive in advance of its general publication, nor should they pass information to others.
• Journalists must not write about shares or securities in whose performance they know that they or their close families have significant financial interest without disclosing the interest to the editor or financial editor.
• They must not buy or sell, either directly or through nominees or agents, shares or securities about which they have written recently or about which they intend to write in the near future.

Question 30

Clause fourteen: Confidential sources

Answer 30

• Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information.

Question 31

Clause fifteen: Witness payments in criminal trials

Answer 31

• No payment or offer of payment to a witness - or any person who may reasonably be expected to be called as a witness – should be made in any case once proceedings are active as defined by the Contempt of Court Act 1981.
• Where proceedings are not yet active but are likely and foreseeable, editors must not make or offer payment to any person who may reasonably be expected to be called as a witness, unless the information concerned ought demonstrably to be published in the public interest and there is an over-riding need to make or promise payment for this to be done; and all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure no financial dealings influence the evidence those witnesses give. In no circumstances should such payment be conditional on the outcome of a trial.
• Any payment or offer of payment made to a person later cited to give evidence in proceedings must be disclosed to the prosecution and defence. The witness must be advised of this requirement.

Question 32

Clause sixteen: Payment to criminals

Answer 32

• Payment or offers of payment for stories, pictures or information, which seek to exploit a particular crime or to glorify or glamorise crime in general, must not be made directly or via agents to convicted or confessed criminals or to their associates – who may include family, friends and colleagues.
• Editors invoking the public interest to justify payment or offers would need to demonstrate that there was good reason to believe the public interest would be served. If, despite payment, no public interest emerged, then the material should not be published